xxii INTRODUCTION 



mitted to stay longer than the I5th. by reason of the Army's 

 marching to Glocester, which would have left both me and 

 my brother expos'd to ruine, without any advantage to his 

 Majestic. Dec. yth. I went from Wotton to London to see 

 the so much celebrated line of com'unication, and on the 

 loth, returned to Wotton, nobody knowing of my having 

 been in his Majestie's Army.' 



During the first half of 1643 Evelyn employed himself 

 entirely in rural occupations, visiting the garden and vine- 

 yard of Hatfield and similar places. From time to time, 

 however, he made many journeys to and from London. 

 What he sometimes saw there gave him much food for 

 ample reflection. l May 2nd. I went from Wotton to 

 London, where I saw the furious and zelous people demolish 

 that stately Crosse in Cheapside. On the 4th. I returned 

 with no little regrett for the confusion that threatened us. 

 Resolving to possess myself in some quiet if it might be, in 

 a time ofso great jealosy, I built by my Brother's permission 

 a study, made a fishpond, an island, and some other soli- 

 tudes and retirements, at Wotton, which gave the first occasion 

 of improving them to those water-works and gardens which 

 afterwards succeeded them, and became at that tyme the 

 most famous of England. * But, willy nilly, he was bound 

 to become dragged into action on the King's behalf. ' July 

 1 2th. I sent my black manege horse and furniture with a 

 friend to his Majestic then at Oxford. 23rd. The Covenant 

 being pressed, I absented myselfe ; but finding it impossible 

 to evade the doing very unhandsome things, and which had 

 been a greate cause of my perpetual motions hitherto be- 

 tween Wotton and London, Oct. 2nd. I obtayned a lycence 

 of his Majestic, dated at Oxford and sign'd by the King, to 

 travell againe.' Accordingly, on yth. November, he took 

 boat at the Tower wharf for Sittingbourne, ' being only a 

 payre of oares, expos'd to a hideous storm, thence posting 

 to Dover accompanied by an Oxford friend, Mr. Thicknesse, 

 and crossing the Channel to Calais. ' 



Proceeding by Boulogne, Monstreuil, Abbeville, Beauvais, 

 Beaumont, and St. Denys to Paris, of which he gives a very 

 interesting account, he threw himself into the social life 

 of that gay capital. His first step was to make his duty to 



